Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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101. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development the status of each of the policy measures detailed in the ‘Our Living Islands – Action Plan 2023-2026’; when an updated progress report will be published; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14532/25]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government commits to ensuring that Our Living Islands - the national islands policy - is fully implemented to support sustainable development for island residents.

Our Living Islands, which was launched in June 2023, is a ten-year policy backed up by rolling three-year action plans, with the first of these covering 2023 - 2026. The Action Plan has time-bound commitments so that Departments and agencies across Government can be held to account for its implementation. The policy serves the communities of all our populated offshore islands, both Gaeltacht and non-Gaeltacht islands.

Our Living Islands is a policy for the whole of Government. My Department chairs the Monitoring Committee which was formed to oversee the implementation of Our Living Islands.

The Monitoring Committee continues to engage with key Government Departments and state bodies in relation to progress on implementation of the action plan. The most recent meeting was held in my Department's headquarters in Dublin in December 2024, and featured presentations from colleagues in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on topics of relevance to the islands.

The next meeting is due to take place next month, April 2025, following which the minutes of the previous meeting - including any updates that were provided at that meeting - will be published on the Our Living Islands page on gov.ie, where previous progress updates are also available.

I understand a progress report for the first year of implementation was published by my predecessor last summer, and I expect a similar progress report for the second year will be published later this year.